The parent application, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,769, describes and claims a pseudo-gel comprising a suitable solvent in an amount of 99 to 90 percent by weight and an ultra-high-molecular-weight polymer such as polyethylene (UHMWPE) in an amount of 1 to 10 percent by weight. The pseudo-gel of the ultra-high-molecular weight polymer, e.g. an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, is a semicrystalline network with adjustable crystalline morphology comprising randomly dispersed and oriented chain-folded single crystals, stacks of single crystals, spherulitic crystals, and extended-chain shish-kebab-type of fibrils with lengths up to a few millimeters and widths up to 20 .mu.m. The semicrystalline ultra-high-molecular-weight polymer, such as polyethylene, is obtained by removal of the solvent from the pseudo-gel. The application also describes a method for making a pseudo-gel precursor and a ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene product.
Near the end of that application, reference is made to composite structures of UHMWPE filamentary and non-filamentary semicrystalline morphologies. The present invention relates to such composite structures and to the processing methodology relating thereto.